


Drinking Poison

by Escalus



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Apocalypse, Blood and Gore, Car Accidents, Demons, Horror, M/M, Minor Character Death, Murder, Murder-Suicide, Pre-Slash, Sceo Scarefest 2020, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:13:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27316072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Escalus/pseuds/Escalus
Summary: Set soon after the end of the series, Scott and Theo are trapped in a nightmare that might very possibly be the end of the world.  Can they stop it or will the past and its agonies overwhelm them before they can even try?
Relationships: Scott McCall/Theo Raeken
Comments: 6
Kudos: 33
Collections: SceoRecs, SceoScareFest





	Drinking Poison

**Author's Note:**

> This is a very violent story and you should look at the tags very closely. Due to the situation in the story, the indicated relationship is not spoken about in direct terms, but it is important to the action.

**“Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”**

Theo’s eyes were open but he couldn’t focus on anything. His body ached but he had managed to remain detached from the pain. He had long ago been trained not to let it bother him. Were the Doctors done with the surgery already? That was quicker than the last time.

He wondered what he’d feel like when he became fully conscious. Sometimes after the surgeries, he felt better. Sometimes, he felt worse. It was the price of success, the Surgeon had told him. Pain was always the price of success. 

Something was different this time. He felt as if he were moving, like he was in a car. Why would they do that? 

“You have to stay awake!” A voice he almost recognized shouted at him. It wasn’t one of the Doctors. “Theo!”

“I’m … I’m … awake … wake,” Theo mumbled. He was having trouble talking. That hadn’t happened for a dozen experiments. 

A hand grabbed his shoulder. “Come on, man. You’re all I got, so I need you to open your eyes.”

After the desperation in that voice, Theo forced his eyes open. The world was still soft around the edges, like everything had been wrapped in that clear plastic film that his mom used to store lunchmeat. That was funny, he hadn’t thought of his mom in ages.

He started to cry.

“Theo!” The voice suddenly dropped an octave, rough and monstrous, and Theo’s throat clenched in response. He knew better; they didn’t like tears. Tears were for failures.

“I’m not crying, I’m not. I just … there’s something in my eyes.”

“Look at me.” The voice softened. “Please, Theo, look at me.”

Theo turned. Oh, it wasn’t a Doctor. It was Scott. A Scott who was driving his truck and he was soaked in blood and gore down the front of his chest. It had been ripped open. He couldn’t remember why they were driving or why Scott was driving it instead of him. “Wha … what’s goin’ on … on?”

Scott turned to him but didn’t answer. His face could be concerned, but it was covered in blood, and a long gash cut across the alpha’s forehead and left cheek. It that slowly knit itself together why Theo watched. There was a spot on his chest Theo imagined he saw a bit of white bone peeking out. It couldn’t have been an undershirt; that would be soaked in too much blood. The werewolf’s hands were shaking as he took a turn out onto the county road. 

“You’re hurt.”

“Yeah. We’re both hurt, Theo. Keep talking.”

“Why’re you hurt?” His head swam. Theo put his hand up to his head and it came away sticky. Apparently, he was bleeding as well. “Why’m I hurt? Why can’t I think?”

“Mason stabbed you in the head with a screwdriver.” Scott coughed after admitting that, wiping his lips with one hand. “You’re getting better, I think, but you need to stay awake. I don’t know what will happen if you fall asleep.”

“’Kay,” Theo muttered but he did feel tired, but from what he could vaguely remember about what “Talk to me, too.”

“I’m trying to drive,” Scott replied through gritted teeth. 

“Talk. I need … I need to hear … your voice …” Theo winced. “I mean … focus.”

“I need to focus, too!” Scott snapped but then immediately glanced over at him. “Sorry.”

Theo had regained enough of his wits to recognize that they were on the county highway, heading northwest, away from Beacon Hills and towards farmland. The cab of the truck was filled with the smell of fresh blood and the stench of fear. 

Some of it was his own, but most of it was Scott’s. 

“You’re … you’re hurt.” Was he repeating himself? Coherency was returning, but far too slowly.

“I’m mostly healed.” 

“Did Mason stab you, too?”

“No.” Scott coughed again and this time, Theo noticed bloody foam coming out of his mouth. One of Scott’s lungs must have been torn open.

“Who … who … come on?” A terrible thought bubbled up out of Theo’s scrambled memories.

“Liam tried to kill me again.”

Theo blinked. The world was slowly resolving itself into something he could understand, but that meant the memory of what happened years ago came back as if it were yesterday. “I didn’t tell him to!”

“I know. Everyone’s gone crazy. They all started trying to kill each other. You don’t remember?”

“Everyone?” 

“I watched my next door neighbor hit the mailman with his car. You don’t remember any of this?”

Theo shook his head and then grunted. He made a note to himself not to shake his head again until he had healed more. The pain almost made him throw up. “Do you know what’s causing it?”

“No. It’s just been in the last twelve hours. Not everyone seems to be affected.” Scott answered. “Well, the only people I know who aren't affected are you and me. I couldn’t figure out why the pack was trying to kill us, and they didn’t say anything that made sense, so I took you and we ran.” 

“Where are we going?”

“Someplace safe, though I don’t know where that could be. I called Argent and Deaton, but they didn’t answer. I called Stiles in D.C.” 

“Is it just Beacon Hills?”

Scott gripped the steering wheel so tightly the metal creaked. “I have no idea.”

They healed slowly while dealing with the possibility that something had gone wrong all over the world. They had seen movies with that exact premise. As his mind grew clearer and clearer, Theo relaxed. If it was the end of the world, he was in a relatively good position. He could take care of himself. He could take care of Scott. And Scott would take care of him.

Five minutes passed in silence, and Theo was about to suggest somewhere to go when he caught a flash of blue and red lights in the mirror. Scott noticed Beacon Count Sheriff’s Department car a moment later. 

“Great. Just what we needed.” Scott started to pull over. 

“Are you crazy?” Theo said. “We’re covered in blood.”

“I know the deputies. We can maybe talk our way out of this, _Theo,_ ” Scott grated, “but if we start a high-speed chase and he calls in the state police as a response, we’re fucked. I’m not that good a driver. Have you ever been involved in a high-speech chase?”

Theo sighed. “No.”

“Ha. I’ve broke a law that you haven’t.” The truck rolled to a stop on the shoulder, and Scott put it in neutral. 

Theo tried to compose himself. They looked like horror movie extras, and convincing the cop not to take them into custody was going to be an impossible sell, even if the deputy didn’t take one look at them and call for backup. He turned to see where the law enforcement officer was and shouted Scott’s name.

The cruiser hadn’t slowed down in response to their pulling over. Instead, it had sped up dangerously. They only had time to brace themselves before the cruiser swerved across the road and then smashed into the flank of the truck at an acute angle. 

Glass shattered and metal crumpled around them. The truck was pushed off the road and into the drainage ditch, tilting precariously and barely not flipping over. Theo groaned after the truck stopped moving, but when he tried to straighten himself, he screamed in pain. By the way his right hand hung uselessly off his wrist, he was pretty sure that his wrist was badly broken. 

He wondered momentarily if he was nearing the limit of his healing. He ached everywhere.

“You okay, Scott?” 

Scott didn’t answer. He was slumped over the wheel, unconscious. Fresh blood was pouring from a cut on his scalp. Theo pushed past his pain to focus his hearing. Scott’s heart was still beating, and it was beating strong. He should get better. Theo nearly fainted in a combination of pain and relief.

His heightened hearing did allow him let him hear the deputy muttering to himself. “Fucking monsters. Fucking monsters. Gonna kill ‘em.” There followed the sound of a shotgun being pumped. 

Theo got out of the truck as quickly as he could. Scott wouldn’t be moving for a bit, so the alpha was a sitting duck if the cop started firing. Moving was difficulty, and his wrist wouldn’t stop sending sharp rivers of pain up his arm, but Theo intercepted the deputy in front of the ruined truck. “Sir?”

The deputy brought the shotgun up to his shoulder. “Get down on your knees!”

Theo pretended to obey, but he did it as slowly as he could. “Deputy Strauss.” He recognized the man from the fight with Monroe. “My friend is hurt.”

“My friends were hurt! Some are dead.” The masque of authority fell away and this man was pure rage. “Dead. Dead!” 

“I didn’t do it.” Theo tensed up, but he let the deputy’s anger carry him closer. 

“They died because of you!” 

In a blur, Theo sprung up into the air and forward. Strauss fired the shot, but the spray of pellets didn’t hit Theo dead center. Agony shot through his legs as he landed.

Physical pain can be overcome, though Theo was really tired of taking it and not dishing it out. With a triumphant snarl, he landed in front of the deputy and knocked the gun away. _Why should these losers hurt him?_ He thought. Strauss’s face seethed red, and he tried to bring up the shotgun again. 

Theo slashed Straus’s throat. “No one kicks me around!”

His chest heaving, Theo watched the deputy fall to the ground and start bleeding out. Theo staggered back to the wreck of the truck. His legs were on fire, his wrist was excruciating, but he would beg for even more pain if he could undo what he had just done.

He hadn’t changed at all. His hands were still covered with blood. He sank down against the front of the truck, resting his forehead on his knees. He tried to slow his breathing, the way he had been taught by the Pathologist when he needed to focus. In and out. In and out. His heart stopped racing. 

“Theo.”

“Go away,” Theo said, not looking up. He didn’t need to see the disapproval. He didn’t need to see the hatred.

“Theo, you need to get up.” Scott insisted. “Look at me.”

The chimera looked up to see Scott extending a hand to help him. Scott’s face was crimson with blood, though the scalp wound had finally stopped bleeding. It was incongruous, the look on the alpha’s face. It was the one that people had mocked Scott for as being stupidly compassionate.

“I killed him.”

“He was trying to kill you,” Scott replied. 

“I wanted to kill him. I was so angry.”

Scott shoved his hand at him again. “We’ll deal with that later. Please get up.”

Theo grabbed the hand and the alpha pulled him to his feet. The pain was minimal.

“Can you walk?”

“Yeah.”

“Get the stuff out of the truck. Everything we need.”

Scott went and took care of Strauss, placing him in the wreck of his cruiser. The alpha turned on the radio, but he didn’t try to talk on it. He just listened to the dispatcher. From what Theo was able to pick up at this distance, it sounded like Beacon County had descended into anarchy and chaos. 

Theo stopped trying to listen. He pulled what little he had from the back seat. 

Switching the radio off, Scott returned to where Theo was waiting. He was carrying the shotgun, a pistol was shoved in his belt, and he was carrying the cruiser’s emergency survival kit.

The sight of Scott with a shotgun was weird. Theo had to look twice. 

“We need to find somewhere to rest. We’re too beat up, even for us.” Scott pointed to a house that they could barely see through a stand of trees. “There’s a farm over there, so that’s where we’re going. We need to get cleaned up. We need food. We need to sleep.”

“What if the people . . .”

“I’ll convince them. I’ll force them if I have to. This is an emergency.”

“That doesn’t sound …” 

Scott suddenly snarled at him. “Shut up! Look at us!” He gestured to his gore covered front and started to be sarcastic. “Are you so obsessed with me being better than you have to nag me constantly? Do you hate that I’m supposedly the ‘perfect True Alpha’ so much that you’d rather die? I’m not perfect! I’ll steal to eat if I’m starving! I’ll hurt someone if I lose my temper! _Stupid fuck._ ” 

Theo paled at the outburst. Scott had never … even when they were mortal enemies, he had never ever spoken to him like that before. Suddenly, it was like Scott was a different person.

Scott stomped away about a half-dozen paces and something wracked his frame. After a moment, he said, “Theo. I don’t know why I did that. I don’t … I’m sorry.”

Theo recalled his best acting face. He couldn’t let it show how hurt he was. “Hey, it’s a stressful day.”

“I’ve had stressful days before, and I’ve never … I’ve never been that cruel to someone.”

Theo forced a smile through the blood. He was feeling near normal. “Well, then you’ve got some free shots coming.”

Scott looked as if he was about to argue when his phone rang. Scott dug at it as he walked into the orchard and his shoulders sagged in relief when he saw who it was. He put it on speaker so Theo could hear without straining.

“Stiles! Please tell me you got something.”

“Yeah. You’re in trouble.” 

Theo rolled his eyes. “Succinct as usual, Stiles.”

“Scott?” Stiles sounded panicked. “You’re with Theo? Oh my God, you have to get away from him!”

It did not hurt. Theo was used to it. 

Scott, on the other hand, had run to the end of his patience. “Stiles, I don’t have a choice! He’s the only person who hasn’t tried to kill me today. Liam ripped my intestines out! Mom threw a pot at my head!”

“You don’t understand, _both of you_ are in danger. I identified the symbols you found at the Nemeton. It was a summoning circle.”

Scott and Theo looked at each other. Scott closed his eyes. “Tell me they didn’t summon an actual demon.”

The hysterical yet sarcastic laugh was all the answer they need. 

Theo’s only answer was a tired shrug. “Why not?”

Stiles sounded like he was reading from a book. “Autothith, which means _Enmity,_ is one of the seventy-two spirits mentioned in the Testament of Solomon. He is the demon of arguments and grudges and feeds off the energy that provoking such things between friends generates.” 

“What’s going on is a little bit more than an argument.”

“My theory is that summoning him next to the Nemeton must be boosting his power. The demon is magnifying the resentment in people until they’re ready to kill because of it.” Stiles’s excitement and urgency had him yelling into the phone. “It’ll keep pushing and pushing and pushing at every tiny problem you have ever had until you’ll try to murder everybody you care about.”

“Is this happening everywhere? To everyone?”

Stiles took a deep breath. “I think it will. Eventually.”

“How do we stop it?”

“According to the book you can dismiss Autothith by writing down the Alpha and Omega in its presence.”

“What does that mean?” Scott ran a hand through his hair. “When are you coming back?”

“I’m not.” Stiles voice cracked, but it wasn’t due to a bad connection.

“What? Stiles, I need you.”

“And you have me, but on the phone only. You have to understand that according to the fifteenth century monk who wrote this book, the deeper the resentment is buried, the easier it is for the demon to manipulate. I bury mine pretty deep.” 

Scott opened his mouth and closed it. Theo watched him try to formulate something to deny what Stiles had said about himself, as a friend would. In the end, he couldn’t. “Okay.”

Silence hung between the three of them as Scott and Theo headed deeper into the orchard. The cover of the trees didn’t welcome them. It felt closed off, like a trap.

“I need you to figure out what that means. The way to stop it.”

“I’m on it. But Scott … you and Theo can’t be around each other. You understand that, don’t you?”

“I can’t do this alone, Stiles. Right now, he hasn’t tried to kill me, and I haven’t tried to kill him, so I’m going to trust him.”

“Scott …”

“Stiles, you need to trust me.” Scott’s voice returned for the first time since Theo had recovered his wits. “I know what I’m doing.” 

“I do. I trust you.” Stiles paused. “I’ll call back as soon as I have more.”

The orchard turned out to be filled with apple trees. Most of them had already been picked by this time of the year, but there were a few stragglers. Theo reached up and snatched one of the tree. He took a bit of it and then tossed it to the ground.

“Sour,” he complained.

“Their lights are on. That’s good. Do you want to do the talking?”

Theo turned to Scott. “Why? Because I’m a good liar?”

“Yep.” Scott popped the ‘p.’ “Or do you want me to fuck it up?”

“No. Good point. I’ll handle it.”

They went up to the front door and knocked. They must have looked a fright, covered in blood with torn clothes, but they would have looked a lot more frightening if they had simply burst in the door.

There was no answer. Scott put his ear to the door. “I don’t hear anyone.”

Theo was too tired to try to listen, but the nose still worked. “All I smell is blood. My own or yours, I can’t tell.” With a little grimace, he turned the door handle. It was unlocked.

When they opened in, the smell of blood became overpowering, but it wasn’t their own. It came from an old man lying on the floor of the living room. He had been clubbed in the head by something heavy, most likely the cast iron skillet that had been left near the body. Scott had to look away. It wasn’t like in the movies, Theo mused, where someone could get hit by something heavy and their head stayed the same shape. 

There was another body in the dining room. An old woman had shot herself there. She left a simple note, written in a delicate hand: _He deserved it._

“Go shower and get cleaned up. I’ll check out the rest of the house.”

Theo did as he was told. It might not have been completely safe, but he was too tired to argue. He found the bathroom on the second floor and stripped out of his clothes, leaving them on a pile near the door. He’d bury or burn them somewhere.

It felt like he stood in the shower for an hour, but it was only about fifteen minutes. The hot water soothed his aches and by the time he was finished, he was almost as good as new. But he felt like he could sleep for weeks. They probably didn’t have that kind of time. 

Wrapped in a towel, he went to the master bedroom. The old man had been thinner than he was, though slightly taller. He could probably find some clothes that would fit.

Scott was standing there, probably having the same idea. He had pulled out some clothes that might fit either of them, but his eyes were fixed by a framed picture on the bed. They had honeymooned in Atlantic City in 1975. They had been married for over forty years. 

“We have to find a way to stop Autothith,” Scott turned away from the picture.

“I’m sure you will, but first things first. I didn’t use all the hot water.” 

Scott nodded and left the room. Theo put on a flannel shirt that smelled like mothballs, and a pair of jeans that were just tight enough to be uncomfortable. Afterwards, he went down to the kitchen and made some food. There had been steaks defrosting in the refrigerator, so he cooked all of them. 

He wasn’t a great cook, but instant mashed potatoes and corn didn’t take a Julia Childs. By the time he was finished, Scott had come back down, fully dressed. 

“What’s that smell?”

“Dinner. Let’s eat in the kitchen.” 

Scott didn’t put up much of an argument. They ate silently and quickly, hunger reappearing even with the stench of death permeating the house.

“What do we do now?” Theo said, finishing off a glass of milk. 

“We sleep.” 

“I meant … what next?”

“I know what you meant, but I don’t have any idea what ‘inscribing the Alpha and Omega in its presence’ means, and if you do I’d like to hear it. I’m also very tired, and you can laugh at me about it but I don’t think very well when I’m exhausted.”

Theo put the glass down with a clink. “Why are you always doing that?”

Scott looked at him. “Doing what?”

“You always act as if I secretly think you’re an idiot. Have I ever gave you the slightest indication that I think you’re stupid?”

Scott looked away. “Not really. I just … I’m used to all my friends thinking I’m slow.”

“We didn’t try to kill you because you were dumb, we tried to kill you because you were dangerous! Getting rid of you was our top priority, because …” Theo trailed off. “What … what did you say?”

The alpha didn’t answer, instead sawing into the last few pieces of steak like they had personally offended them.

“You … you called me your friend.”

“I’m regretting it now. Tell me why killing me was your top priority again?” 

Theo covered his embarrassment by taking his dishes to the sink. It was not his cleverest move. The couple wouldn’t mind if he washed off the dishes. He had to take a different tactic.

“Do you think that Stiles is right? That it’s dangerous to be together?”

“Yes,” Scott said. “But that has nothing to do with the demon.”

Theo turned around from the sink in surprise.

“I’m going to sleep. You can have the master bedroom. I’ll take the guest bedroom.” Scott left the room before he could finish.

Theo cleaned the kitchen. He was tired, too, but he didn’t want to go upstairs until he could digest what the hell Scott had meant. He carefully washed the plates and the dishes, but still no answer came to him. Then he locked the door, turned off all the lights and then went to bed.

At least, he tried. It wasn’t easy, even for him, to go to sleep with two corpses below him. Especially since he could smell them on the bed in which he was trying to close his eyes. He didn’t go under the covers. He wouldn’t be able to bear it.

Sleep came fitfully, but it came and with it blessed oblivion for just a few hours. Theo, mercifully, did not dream so there were no nightmares, perhaps because the waking world had descended into one giant nightmare. 

He did wake around four when something wet fell on his face. His eyes opened to see Scott standing above him, or what he assumed to be Scott. The shape was huge and bestial, with darkened skin and monstrous features. 

Theo felt a spike of fear settled in his belly. Stiles had been right, and he was about to die. Contrary to his less perceptive enemies’ beliefs, Scott had never been a saint; he had never been burdened with that. He simply had control. Theo imagined that the truth had to be that Scott had hated Theo since Theo had made Scott trust him, made Scott depend on him, made Scott love him and then yanked it away with cruelty and a gigantic hole in his chest. It had taken a while, but the demon had found the key to unlock that hate. 

Theo had no alternatives. Scott had the advantage of position over him, hovering over his bed where Theo would have to try to fight against the unresisting softness of the mattress. Scott had the power; though he had always been reluctant to use it, he still had charged an army of machine-gun wielding renegade hunters and stood toe-to-toe with monsters like the Beast and a Nazi werelion. But most of all, Scott had the right to do this. Theo had hurt him, not just physically, but emotionally. He had lost Kira. He had lost the pure, unsullied trust he had had with Liam. His friendship with Stiles would never be what it was. Theo had crushed them all in a grasp for meaningless power. There was only one thing Theo could say.

“You don’t have to stop.” 

Yet, Scott didn’t start. He just stood there, a hulking ravenous monster with blazing red eyes. Theo realized that what had woken him up was blood was coming from Scott’s outstretched hand, the claws digging into his own flesh. 

Then the monster turned away and shuffled out of the room. Theo, lying as still as he could, heard Scott return to the guest bedroom. 

He never fell back to sleep.

In the morning, Theo had breakfast ready when Scott came downstairs. They didn’t talk at first. Theo did almost burst out chuckling at the absurdity and Scott kept glancing back towards the dining room and the living room and the corpses there. 

“We’re not them,” Theo finally said. 

“Not who?”

“Them.” Theo jerked his head toward the other room. “For one thing, we haven’t been together for decades.”

“I know that.” Scott frowned. “Why would you say that?”

“Because things change. You …”

Scott shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about last night.”

Theo lifted his eyebrows. 

“Not yet. Not with this going on. We can talk about it, if you really want to, but not now.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Theo replied. He hesitated but before he could continue the phone rang.

Scott scrambled for his phone. “Stiles, tell me you have something. I don’t really care what it is, just anything. Please.”

“I have a lot of things, but most of them aren’t good. According to my sources in the FBI, the National Guard has been mobilized, but they’re not going to be able to stop it, and there are similar things happening in Egypt, in China, in Brazil, and in France.”

“It is the Nemeton,” Theo breathed. They were all locations where the trees of power happened to exist near population centers. 

“Right. Scott, I think it’s using the telluric currents to amplify and spread its influence.” 

Scott hummed. “How far will it get?”

“Telluric currents go everywhere. Everywhere.” Stiles sounded frantic. “Eventually, its influence will spread across the entire world.”

Scott and Theo glanced at each other. Civilization would collapse as tiny grudges became blood feuds and cultural animosity became genocides. 

“Can it be stopped?”

“That’s sort of the good news, but I think there are only two people who can do it: you or me.” Theo could imagine Stiles pacing, laying out his assumptions. “Autothith was summoned within the Nemeton, which means that the only way to be in its presence is if you are also within the Nemeton. We qualify, due to the sacrifice.”

“How?”

“Metaphysically, the darkness around our hearts connects us to tree. It’s in us, and so we’re in it. You have to get to the Nemeton, get this thing’s attention, and then draw the Alpha and Omega. I’ll send you a picture from the book.”

Scott showed him the image. It was simple enough. 

“Do you really think it’s that simple?” Theo complained. “Why would something so simple drive it away?”

“Do you really think it’s going to be simple?” Stiles voice was outraged. “You will have to travel through a county filled with people who might want to kill you because you once cut in line at the ice cream parlor, you have to get to a magic tree stump that has been the bane of my fucking existence since I before you came back, _and_ you have to somehow get a demon’s attention without anyone killing you or you killing each other. But sure, drawing two Greek letters should be a piece of cake.”

“I think he means why this particular symbol?”

“In my 24 hour crash course in demonology, dumbasses,” Stiles was completely done, “I’m making an educated guess. Demons are mostly _concepts._ The alpha and the omega is the beginning and the end. The first and the last. Anything and all things. Grudges and resentment are trivial and powerless in the face of … of … _everything forever._ ”

“Okay. We’ll get it done.” Scott agreed, as if it were simple as that. Theo goggled at him.

“Be careful, Scott.”

“I will. If we don’t make it, though, you’re going to need another plan.”

Stiles voice grew slightly quieter. “You can do it, Scott. If anyone can.”

“Still. Have another plan.”

Stiles didn’t answer. “Call me when you’re done.” Then he hung up.

“We don’t have time to lose. Let’s get moving.”

Theo had a million things to say against what they were going to attempt to do. It was ridiculously dangerous. It wasn’t necessarily their problem. There had to be experts out there somewhere who would figure out what was going on and how to stop it, other than three teenagers. The only sure thing about this plan was that they would probably die and then Stiles would probably die and after that most of the world would probably die, so a better plan might be to go somewhere they could wait it out.

And, most importantly, _not die._

But he didn’t say anything like that to Scott, and Scott didn’t say anything to him. They didn’t talk while they loaded their stuff into the couple’s old 1987 El Camino, and Scott put the bag with Strauss’s guns in the back seat. They didn’t talk while they drove down the back roads of Beacon County. It would take longer to reach the Preserve, but they were far less likely to run into someone with a grudge. 

Smoke could be seen rising from the city of Beacon Hills proper. Scott watched it rise over the trees and his heart began to beat a little bit faster. His anxiety could not be hidden. He had to want to go to town and look for his family and his pack. Theo didn’t. Then again, he didn’t have anyone to look for.

“I’m sure they’re fine.” Theo finally said as they pulled into one of the entrances to the Preserve.

The alpha turned to him, sharply. “You don’t know that.”

“They – your mother, the Sheriff, your pack -- you helped them learn how to survive.”

“I did _nothing._ ” Scott slammed the car door hard. “I didn’t teach them anything. I didn’t know anything to teach them.”

“Stiles told me about some of your adventures, and he told me about trying to find the kanima. There was a bumper sticker from Einstein: _imagination is more important than knowledge.”_

Scott started to stomp off into the woods. “I remember. Bumper stickers aren’t going to save anyone. Come on, we gotta find that damned stump.”

Theo didn’t let it go. “They’ll survive because more important than raw power, than knowledge, then skill, is what you taught them: the value of belief. Someone can be the strongest, the best trained, the smartest and it means nothing if they don’t believe they can win.”

“Why are you trying to blow smoke up my ass, Theo?” Scott’s voice was sour. 

“Because I’m terrified!” Theo shouted back, rage bubbling out of him from some place he couldn’t identify. He had been trying to help. Scott turned and looked at him after the outburst. “Did you ever think that I want to believe in you? Believe that you can stop horrible things like this? Did you ever think that believing in you helps me think that maybe I, too, can survive this? That believing in what you believe stops me from deciding I’d be better making a run for it and killing anyone I come across before they can kill me?”

The alpha didn’t say anything. Theo had had enough of the not talking.

“You resent it, don’t you?”

Scott mumbled something.

“I didn’t hear you.” Theo lashed out, pushing as hard as he dared. “Admit it. You resent being an alpha. Being a True Alpha. You resent the idea that if you tore my throat out last night, everyone would be so disappointed in you.”

Scott’s eyes turned red.

“You resent that after you let Allison die, after Kira went to live in the desert, no one came by and benched you, like the time you were benched in lacrosse because your grades sucked.”

“Theo–“ Scott growled.

“You resent all these people who look up to you. But, I realized, you don’t really resent me, do you? At least not enough to kill me last night. Because I did the one thing that no one else has been able to do. I killed you. I punished you for your _failure.”_

“Yes!” Scott roared, and if there was anyone else in the Preserve, they heard it. “Yes, I do. There’s always another thing, another damned thing after another damned thing, and this time it’s a demon but who cares? Not them! No one cares that I don’t remember what a normal life is anymore. Something goes wrong and I’m supposed to fix it, and they don’t care that I have no idea what I’m doing and they don’t care that maybe I don’t want to keep doing this for the rest of my life!”

Theo took a step back as Scott broke a tree with his fist. He smashed it right in half.

“I should just drive down to Los Angeles and drink beer while the world burns. I should do so much coke that my heart bursts while people cut each other down in the street. But, no, I have to save everyone! They’re so stupid to trust me to save them! They should die for putting their hopes in me! Everyone! Everywhere! THEY SHOULD ALL FUCKING DIE!”

And with that Scott transformed back into the monstrous beast he had been last night and let forth a howl that shook windows in the city. His claws tore up the ground as he squatted, ready to kill anything that came near him.

“Good.” Theo started walking again. “I thought so.”

“Theo …” Scott began to shrink down. 

Theo kept on walking. “We’ve got no time to stand around.”

“Theo, why did you do that?”

“Now you know how Autothith is going to come at you.” Theo said matter-of-factly. “I may not have your belief in people, Scott, but I do have some skills. Now you’re prepared.”

He could feel Scott’s eyes on him as the continued to walk. He heard Scott’s footsteps following. 

Eventually, almost too quietly to hear, Scott asked a question. “How is it going to come at you?”

“Oh, that’s simple,” Theo answered, not turning around. “I resent that I’m not you.”

They walked on through the forest. It was overcast, so it was gloomier than usual. Dead leaves twisted in the breeze, and the wind brought with it the distant sound of sirens and the faint scent of smoke. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that things were getting worse. They were running out of time. So they kept walking.

At least this time, it seemed the Nemeton wanted to be found.

The stump wasn’t in very good shape. Out of its cut rings, clotted blood erupted and flowed over the ground, like the effluvia of an old wound. The ground was sodden and stinking. Even the most insensitive person would be able to feel the corruption in the earth. The demon had to be here. 

Scott immediately drew the Greek letters in the ground. 

Nothing happened. The sensation of something pushing at their souls, crawling through their memories to find wrongs, real or imagined, was impossible to ignore.

“I guess this doesn’t count as in its presence,” Scott wondered bitterly. He tried to call Stiles. “No signal. Any ideas?”

Theo was walking around the stump. “When I brought the other chimer back to life here, I was tapping into the Nemeton’s power, but I also had to use the fluid from Der Soldat’s tank to do it. I drew on the extra healing spark all alphas have, even a lowenmensch’s, but I also drew on the power of the Wild Hunt, with which was Douglas was infected.”

“I’m sure you have a point, but I’m just a simple dumb werewolf. Why is that important?” 

“Because the bulk of the Nemeton’s sentience and power resides … somewhere else. A dimension near ours but not quite the same. That’s where the demon must be … inside the Nemeton. We’re at the Nemeton, but not the right part of it.”

Scott rubbed at his face in frustration. “Do you know how to get to the right part?”

“No, I don’t. The Wild Hunt could do it, but the only remnant of the Ghost Rider’s power anywhere near Beacon Hills is Corey, and … I’m pretty sure he would not be cooperative.”

Theo went over and sat down on a log. He tried to go over in his mind everything that the Doctors had said about dimensions and telluric currents. They hadn’t taught him everything; they created him for specific tasks. While he did that, Scott stared at the stump, trying to force it to reveal its secrets through concentration. 

Finally, Scott sighed. “We don’t have a horse trough, either.”

“A what?” 

“It doesn’t matter, but I’ll guess we’ll have to do it the hard way.” Scott dropped his claws. “Come over here.”

“What do you have in mind?” 

“The only other realm where I’ve encountered the Nemeton was the White Room, so that’s where we have to go. Drop your claws. We have to do this at the exact same time.”

Theo looked wary. “Do what?”

“I’ll enter your mind at the same time you enter mine.”

“Scott, not to suddenly doubt your belief in what can be accomplished, but the last time I did anything like that, I put Lydia in Eichen House for weeks.” 

Scott smiled at him. “We’re pretty desperate. If being committed to a mental institution is the price I have to pay to stop the apocalypse, then at least I’ll get a vacation.” 

“Ha, ha,” Theo replied, bitterly. “I’m not kidding.”

“Neither am I.” Scott held out his hand for Theo’s. “I trust you. I’m asking you to trust everything word you said about me in that pretty speech.”

The chimera looked away. “I … I don’t want to fail.”

“You won’t fail. You’re the First Chimera. You don’t screw up. You’ve let your pride and selfishness lead you down the wrong path, but you’re also very good at everything I’ve ever watched you try.” Scott took his hand. “I know what I’m talking about. After all, I’m your alpha.”

Theo turned back to him. He nodded.

They took their time, though, carefully positioning the claws on each other’s necks. Scott counted to three and there was a sharp, yet expected, pain.

Theo looked around him. The place they were in freaked him out. It was white and clean and bright, and he could made jokes about Batman’s basement or King’s Cross Station, but the humor died on his lips. He could feel the awful truth of this place. This room was simply a curtain hiding the immensity of the Unknown. If he saw where he was – if he really saw it – he had no doubt that he would go mad. He shivered. 

Scott grabbed him by the shoulder. “There.”

In the middle of the room sat the Nemeton, squatting ugly and impressive as it always dead. There was no clotted blood here, only its roots tearing up through the walls of superconsciousness. What concerned them more was the figure standing on it. 

Scott and Theo said the name both at the same time. “Coach?”

“Why not?” The demon had taken the form of Bobby Finstock. “It’s the best choice, once you think about it. What better face to borrow in order for me to make my pitch.” 

“I don’t resent Coach, so I think you made a mistake somewhere.” 

“I barely know who he is.” Theo grimaced.

“Well, Scott, since you’re an open book to me, I know you’re lying to yourself.” Autothith sniggered and it was uncanny how he could match the Coach’s mannerisms. “I’m not trying to trick you, especially after your science experiment boyfriend provoked you in the Preserve. Nice move by the way. But I don’t need to trick you; what I need to do is convince you of the truth.” 

Scott took a step forward. “You’re a demon. I don’t know which Hell you came out of, but you don’t deal in the truth.”

“Hell is nothing but truth.” Coach’s eyes glittered with malice. “You already know what I’m going to say. _They deserve this, Scott._ They deserve the inferno I’m going to bring to Earth, and no one deserves it more than Coach. He knew. He had to have known, just like he knew that making you co-captain would provoke Jackson into a foaming rage of hyper-masculine bullshit and just like he knew that there was something weird about Principal Argent forcing you to sit for the state championships.” 

Scott stumbled. “Maybe. So?”

“I understand that you’re too noble to blame the ignorant. And you’re too compassionate to blame those who got involved in order to profit from it, for good or ill. But there are those who peeked behind the curtain and did nothing. There those who looked at what you and your friends suffered and said ‘I think I’ll sit this one out.’ That is where your greatest resentment lies.”

“As you said, I know that already.”

“What you haven’t done and what you should do is accept that your resentment is valid.” Finstock chuckled. “Is that the term they use today? Valid? I could have taken the shape of your mother, who sends you out again and again to get hurt. To get killed. But you love her, so that wouldn’t work. I could have taken the shape of your father, who is never there when you need him, but I can tell you blame yourself for that. Or I could be the Sheriff who is willing to bend the rules to write off Stiles’s parking tickets but couldn’t wait to abandon you and Kira in Mexico. But there’s all sorts of messy feelings there about jurisdiction and justice and yadda-yadda-yadda.”

Scott sighed. “Do you have a point?”

“It’s called build-up, McCall. Take a speech class!” The resemblance to the real Finstock was uncanny. “And you, Theo, I’m the life you didn’t have. The life you can never have. You will never, ever, _ever_ get your time with the Doctors back. Nine years living in dingy, filthy laboratories. Nine years of torture and experiments. All for _nothing._ ”

Theo eyes glowed. He couldn’t help it. Scott put his hand on his arm. 

“Meanwhile, Bobby Finstock coached high school lacrosse after finally getting sober. He was a drunk for years, and during that time, he could have wrapped his car around a tree. He could have killed someone. But he didn’t. He didn’t make the mistakes you did. He wasn’t as unlucky as you were to come to the attention of insane evil. I can taste how much you loathe him and people like him.” 

“I …” Theo choked. “Yeah. You got me. So what?”

“Did you know how witches were punished in Dante’s Inferno?” Autothith asked, seemingly out of the blue.

“They were forced to walk around in a circle with their heads twisted backward so they couldn’t see where they were going.”

“Did you read Dante as part of the Be-a-Better-Scott-McCall program?” Demon-Coach sneered. “Kudos. You see the powers that be have forbidden any supernatural entity to tell humanity their true future, because hope is at the bottom of the box. As long as it’s there, anything is possible. Do you want to know your future, boys?”

“I want you gone.” Scott started to look around, and Theo heard the alpha’s breath caught in his throat. It took Theo a moment to realize why; it was something so stupid and thoughtless that he could scream.

They didn’t have anything to write with. 

“We aren’t bound by time and space like you, so I’ll give you a hint. It doesn’t end, boys,” the demonic coach continues. “Until you stop breathing – permanently for you, Scott – your torture doesn’t end. Again. And again. And again. You’ll constantly be called on to save the day, while people like Coach play computer games in their office and pretend they don’t know what’s really going on.” 

Scott moved to the side. “Not everyone is like that.”

“Oh, your allies? One by one they’ll die or they’ll leave. But you’ll never be free of being the True Alpha, of being everyone’s pocket brown-boy savior and punching bag. And you, Theo, will never be free of being the First Chimera, a reformed monster, as everyone waits for you to revert to your true nature. You’ll always be on the outside, looking in. Until it ends, boys, until you’re in the ground for good. So why delay the inevitable? Let me finish what I started. It’ll be violent and bloody, but _it’ll be fun._ ”

“If you know me as well as you say you do,” Scott replied, his claws sliding out of his fingertips. “You’ll know that I don’t have any choice in this. I’ll fight for them. I’ll fight for everyone who helps. I’ll fight for everyone who knows and doesn’t help. I’ll fight for people like Theo, who deserve to be more than their past. He won’t be on the outside; he’ll be with me as long as he wants to be. It’s who I am. There isn’t any other choice.”

Theo turned to Scott, but he didn’t have to ask if what he said was true. There were no lies in the White Room.

“The worst sin is when we sell ourselves.” Autothith hissed and grew its own claws, horns and fangs sprouting from places on Finstock’s body that should not have any. “You always had a choice, Scott. Always. Your destiny is your own making. So now, I’ll shred your souls until your nothing but mewling thralls!”

Theo tore his shirt open. “Scott. Do it. Here. Now. Now!” He grabbed Scott’s hand and put it on his chest – right where he had torn Scott open.

It took a moment for Scott to realize what he meant, but with a pained look, he started. The letters were crude and they were deeper than they had to be, but an angry demon was coming. Alpha. Omega. 

One could imagine that there should have been more fireworks. Like a pit to Hell opening beneath the demon’s feet or a defiant howl or promises of revenge. But it wasn’t. The demon was there, and then the demon was gone.

The world spun and then they were back at the Nemeton in the real world. There was no sign of the demonic corruption. Scott gripped Theo by the shoulders. “Are you all right?”

“Did you mean it?” 

“Huh?” Scott looked Theo in the eyes. “Yes. I meant it, Theo. You’re with me, if you want to be. Until we’re in the ground.”

Theo wanted to cry, but he couldn’t. Instead he sagged as if he was carrying too much weight. “Can we sit down? I’m sorta tired.”

“Yeah.” Scott turned toward the city. “There’s going to be so much to clean up. We still have to figure out who summoned the demon in the first place.”

Theo pulled him by the arm. “Someone else can do it. You stopped it; they can pick up the pieces. Why don’t we just … sit here and wait.”

“But … my mom. The pack.”

“We don’t even know where they are. It’s not forever, Scott, just for a little while. For me?”

“Okay. For you.”

**Author's Note:**

> The opening quote has no clear attribution. In fact, where it originated is a matter of some debate, and I've found sources identifying it as coming from the Buddha, Nelson Mandela, and Alcoholics Anonymous.
> 
> The demon's name and portfolio comes from Theresa Bane's _Encyclopedia of Demons in World Religions and Cultures_. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., 2012


End file.
